


Once and Future Queen

by Mystical_Magician



Series: Into the Dream [2]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Crossover, Drabble, Fantasy, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-30
Updated: 2012-08-30
Packaged: 2017-11-13 04:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystical_Magician/pseuds/Mystical_Magician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“You are always supposing things,” said Lavinia, and her air was very superior. </em>
</p>
<p>  <em>“I know I am,” answered Sara, undisturbedly. “I like it. There is nothing so nice as supposing. It’s almost like being a fairy. If you suppose anything hard enough it seems as if it were real.” </em><br/><strong><em>-Frances Hodgson Burnett, </em>A Little Princess</strong></p>
            </blockquote>





	Once and Future Queen

Sarah peeked out from behind the curtains at the dissipating audience. The show had been a success, and she was just beginning to wind down from the high she always received when she acted on a stage. She was still dressed as Demeter from the myth of Persephone and Hades, a role that had caused her to chuckle at the irony. Her long white gown in the style of ancient Greece fluttered lightly as she shifted. She had banned the goblins from messing about anywhere near the stage. No telling what dangerous accidents could occur with them around, and the goblins all knew that Sarah herself could be quite dangerous when she was angry. 

Ever since she had run the Labyrinth, Sarah had been particularly sensitive to magic, certainly much more than any witch or wizard she had met. Throughout her performance she had sensed a flickering presence of power. Not like a guttering candle about to be snuffed out, but more like a tree or plant that was struggling to break free of its hibernation. 

Sarah’s eyes skimmed over the well-dressed audience searching for that taste of dreams and magic. Her gaze skipped over Albus Dumbledore – she had known a wizard was present by the hum in the back of her mind – and focused on the woman almost immediately. She was an older woman with dark hair beginning to grey, and a stately air about her. Her gown was a dark blue, expensive but tasteful. Philanthropist, Sarah characterized after a moment of thought. 

Sarah looked harder, and saw within the stranger the shadow of a beautiful young woman. In the glitter of the lights she saw, for a moment, the flash of a crown. And in the dull murmur of the exiting crowd, she heard the low, haunting note of a horn. 

It was strange how the woman continued to stare at the stage, though there was nothing there. Sarah knew that those who had once traveled their dreams had a certain look in their eye that others like them recognized. Had this woman recognized that about Sarah? But she did not look happy, or curious, or even indifferent. She looked heartbroken. 

She looked lost. 

Sarah hesitated. Should she go to the woman? Would that help? Would that make things worse for her? 

It was with some relief that she noticed Will Stanton walk in the woman’s direction. He must have been in full mortal mindset if Sarah hadn’t felt his power. She stepped away from the curtain and headed for the dressing room. It was time for her to shed her costume. The woman was in good hands with Will. He could do what Sarah could not. 

Sarah had not been lost since the Labyrinth. She would not know what to say to the woman who looked as though she had been lost for a very long time. 

 

“Miss Williams is very talented,” Albus commented, standing near his friend as the majority of the audience headed for the exit. 

“Yes,” Will replied with an easy smile. “She is Guardian and Challenger and Heroine. She was cast well.” 

Albus just smiled in reply, well used to the occasionally cryptic turns in conversation with Will. Turnabout was fair play, he supposed. Curiously, he watched as his companion scanned those of the audience who still remained. 

“Ah,” Will murmured as he found the person he was looking for. “If you do not mind, Albus, I believe I need to speak with that woman.” 

“Not at all,” he replied lightly. “Lead the way.” 

Some part of her must have felt the approach, for she looked in the direction of the Old One, and stood immediately. 

“My Lady,” Will said, bowing before her, more than conscious of the fact that she was one of those rulers of the High Magic, even if she herself did not quite acknowledge it. 

“Call me Susan,” she replied, her eyes fixed warily on his form, noticing the curious look on his elderly companion’s visage. 

“And I am Will Stanton,” he said, straightening. “This is my friend Albus Dumbledore. A wizard.” 

Albus looked at him in askance. One did not throw around the existence of the Wizarding World to strangers who were quite probably Muggle. He turned, perhaps to excuse or deny the comment, when he saw Susan’s expression. It was conflicted, pained, almost tortured in a way. 

“I am not who you think I am,” she said tonelessly. “I am not deserving of your respect.” 

“Forgive me for the contradiction, my lady, but you are. You lost your way, it is true, but only for a while. And you have done much good, in these days and these times with your charity.” 

Susan remained silent, but tears glittered in her eyes. She had avoided thinking about Narnia for so many years, first pretending it had all been a childish game because it hurt too much to realize she would never return. Then she refused to think of it because Narnia and the knowledge that something was wrong had been connected so intimately with the death of her family. By the time she had come to terms with their absence, she was so ashamed of herself she couldn’t bear remembering Narnia or Aslan at all. And here, all at once, she was confronted by the magic and dreams of the world. 

“It is lonely, so lonely, to walk this world alone,” Will whispered, the words twining around her heart and burrowing into her soul. He knew that loneliness, to wander the world for many lifetimes, alone with no one who truly knew him. 

“Peter, Ed, and Lucy. They were all gone, leaving me behind. And I was so awful to them in the end.” The words were torn from Susan without her conscious thought. 

Will looked to Albus who, up until then, had only been a silent, sympathetic spectator. Albus saw the look, the silent expectation, and the words came to him unbidden, never before spoken, and painfully true. “I blamed myself, when she died. My sister.” He looked upon the woman with sorrowful blue eyes. “I pushed them away, leaving them as best as I could when my physical presence was obligated to remain. I was idealistic, perhaps even fanatic, and everything changed when she was killed because I was responsible for it, and I saw how very wrong I was.” 

He reached out and took a slender hand between his own in a gesture of comfort. “It can be lonely, but not unbearable, my dear. I daresay that she is happy, wherever she is now.” 

Will smiled gently when she turned to look at him. “They are waiting, beyond Time, for when you join them at last. And I daresay they are proud of you.” 

Susan regarded them for a long moment, and when she spoke she was, for the first time in many years, Queen Susan the Gentle. “Thank you for the peace you have brought to my mind this night. I have much to think on.” 

Will bowed, and Albus followed suit, unable to do otherwise in this presence. And then Susan was queen no longer, but merely a woman, sad and a little frightened of the reflection that needed to come, but hopeful for the first time in a long time that her family would forgive her. That Aslan would forgive her.


End file.
